China executes man who stabbed nine students

BEIJING: China executed a man for killing nine students and injuring 11 others in a knife attack at a middle school in central Shaanxi province in April, according to a post on a Chinese court’s official social media account.

Zhao Zewei was sentenced to death after being charged with homicide for attacking 19 students near a middle school in Mizhi county in Shaanxi province on April 27.

After receiving approval from China’s supreme court, the death sentence was carried out yesterday, according to the statement from the Yulin City Intermediate Court.

Zhao had said he had taken knives into his former school in order to vent frustration and anger over his misfortunes in life and the bullying he was subjected to in school, the statement said.

But the motives for depriving others of life were “despicable” and the methods were especially cruel, and so the supreme court agreed to the use of the death penalty.

Violent crime is rarer in China than many other countries, due in part to strict gun controls. Recent years have, however, seen a series of knife and axe attacks.

China does not release official figures for people it executes every year, but rights groups estimate that more people are executed annually there than in all other countries combined.—